DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx One Rate Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How will you approach Sunday’s race?
“I think we’ll have to kind of play it by ear and really kind of look and see what the guys around us in points are planning on doing. We need to get a good, solid finish out of this to move on. We don’t need to be involved in any wrecks or anything. I tried a lot of different strategies here in the past — laying back, I was 34th on the white flag lap and had there not been a caution we would have finished in the 30s. We can’t afford a day like that. This season so far we’ve had a lot of success on these superspeedways by staying up front and running up front all day. I hope we can employ that same strategy, but if we’re in some kind of position that we don’t want to be in and feel like it’s kind of getting out of our control then we’ll hit the safe button for a while. We’ll just kind of see how it all plays out, but obviously we want to move on to the next round as I feel like the next round obviously lends itself great for our race team to move on. We’re going to keep battling.”
What do you think about Brad Keselowski?
“I think Brad’s (Keselowski) obviously a great talent and I think that Brad really has taken leaps and bounds over where he was when we had our incidents and I think that was 2008 or 2009. I think he’s changed as a person and a driver all for the better. I thought that last week was a bit of a step back for that, but we all have bad weeks and you go through it and you have to just move on. I think Brad knows where I stand and where the other drivers stand on how he’s been.”
How important is qualifying at Talladega?
“Once we go into the race then qualifying is done — it won’t change that at all. I’m still kind of trying to figure it out. It’s the top-24 combined times from two different groups. Really it’s going to be whatever group forms up the best is liable to have all 24 of those cars moving onto the next round. I really don’t know. We’re just going to try to get in line and hopefully form something pretty quick in qualifying to try to get to the next round. Qualifying, it honestly doesn’t mean a whole lot at this race track. When we won here in the spring we started in the very back so you can do it at this race track. It’s one of the few tracks that you can so we don’t put a whole lot of effort into that.”
Do you regret any of the actions from Saturday night at Charlotte?
“I really didn’t do anything. Honestly, I gave him (Brad Keselowski) a brake check down the backstretch, but besides that I didn’t do anything. My team guys wouldn’t let me do anything — that was kind of a bummer. The only thing I was trying to do in the garage and even on pit road was just box him in so I could get to him before his team guys got there. I didn’t ram into him on pit road or anything like that, if you watch I just kept trying to box him in to where he couldn’t go anywhere and I talked to Brad and told him that. I don’t regret anything and I really didn’t feel like I did anything wrong. Obviously, from the penalties NASCAR didn’t feel like I did either.”
Did you hit Brad Keselowski in the garage?
“No, I boxed him (Brad Keselowski) in and he was in a position where he knew he was boxed in and he wanted to get out very quickly so that’s when he got into our right front and spun the tires.”
Will the starting position dictate how you approach the race?
“It will for sure. I think that if we are able to get a good qualifying spot it will allow me to try to stay up front, but if we get mauled in the center to back of the pack for qualifying, it will probably set the tone for how we run the first part of the race or at least until the first pit stop where we can kind of shuffle ourselves to the front through pit strategy or getting on and off pit road pretty quick and getting up to the front. I think that’s the one thing that will dictate for qualifying for us is our early race strategy.”
Would you have been as upset with Brad Keselowski in a regular season race?
“I think if it was a regular season race I wouldn’t say I’d be as upset simply because if you don’t win it’s really irrelevant. Matt (Kenseth) was having a tough day anyway — I don’t think Matt was going to win and I don’t think I was going to win, but it took us from a possible good finish in a point in the season where points really do matter to in the regular season if it happens then points really don’t matter. I’d say my intensity got ramped up for sure simply because it is a three race season in which you have to get every position you can each and every race.”
What have you spoken about with Brad Keselowski since Charlotte?
“I’ll keep it really kind of between us, but he (Brad Keselowski) knows where I stand and I feel like once we get to Talladega here and we go racing then things are going to be as if nothing happened last week. Have to be professional about it and you have to move on. There have been discussions — quite a bit.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx One Rate Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued)
Did you feel Brad Keselowski deserved a stiffer penalty for his role at Charlotte and what kind of message did NASCAR send that Matt Kenseth did not get penalized?
“No, I really don’t believe that he (Brad Keselowski) deserved a stiffer penalty. I mean, you hate to put a points penalty — any monetary fine is a big deal even though people don’t think it is it still comes out of his pocket. That’s a big deal, and not only that but also I’m sure there was discussions in the hauler about this is our safe zone, safe area that there are fans and potential crew members around that we don’t — it’s kind of a zero tolerance policy inside that garage and on pit road. The message as far as Matt (Kenseth) is concerned, what else short of really just blindsiding and tackling him, how else are you going to get to him? There’s so many crew guys. They won’t let you talk to him. He kind of did what he had to do and really you really can’t see any punches or anything so yeah, as far as I’m concerned they were holding hands.”
Is there any driver that you would give up a victory for on the last lap to help ensure that they got the best possible finish?
“No chance. No way. There’s no way any driver is going to give up a victory — I don’t believe. I could be wrong. But, there’s no way in the 50 seconds that it takes from the start-finish line of the white flag lap to go all the way around — in that 50 seconds your crew chief is not able to translate what scenarios are going on for you to think about it and execute it before you get around to the checkered. Like, there’s so many things that go on and everything is going to change in that final lap going back and forth in positions that you could be in. Hey, you’re in by eight spots on the white flag lap and you cross the checkered and by the way you just missed it. Why? I didn’t go anywhere. I was sitting in the same positions because that guy moved up. So, it will change so much and I just don’t think that there’s — I think that there’s going to be a lot of teammate stuff going on as far as kind of make sure you stay in line with your teammates and don’t hang them out and things like that, but every team is going to do that to some extent. We do it even when championship pictures and implications aren’t part of it. Working better with teammates is what has made me better at superspeedway racing. So, I think that it’s just too hard to really think about those scenarios and translate them before you can actually execute them because it’s already changed behind you by the time you got around.”
What will be the final strategy as the race unfolds towards the end?
“I don’t know. I think that for us we’re going to try to get the best finish we can. Obviously if there’s an opportunity to help (Matt) Kenseth move up some positions on the final lap then I’ll do that. More than likely if my car is still running then I’ve got a good shot at getting a good finish. So, our position is we need to finish 15th or better, so more than likely if I’m still rolling around on that final lap then I’m thinking about getting 15th or better and after that I’m thinking about hey, can I help push my teammate or maybe help him in some kind of way. It’s impossible to do that especially with just a few laps to go. If Matt is four or five positions behind there’s no way we’re going to just check up and get behind him. He’s going to have to get up to the front and he’s been way more successful at these superspeedway races than I’ve ever dreamed about. I think that it’s just going to be every person for themselves in my opinion. It’s just too much work to worry about getting somebody else in.”
For this championship format to have validity does it have to be won by a driver who has won at least one race this year?
“I don’t know. I actually was watching the news this morning that was like a .04 chance that the (Kansas City) Royals and the (San Francisco) Giants ended up in the World Series. I mean, it’s just because they weren’t all playing great baseball all year long but they’re playing great baseball now that it counts. And, the guys that don’t get talked about a lot is (Ryan) Newman and Carl (Edwards) and those guys and us, we’re playing good right now. We’re doing what it takes to move on now and that’s kind of what it’s all about. It’s similar to the (New York) Giants winning the Super Bowl a few years ago. They were an 8-8 team or something like that and they win the Super Bowl. Sports is different. When you have playoffs things like this can happen and obviously when you have a three-race season one bad race can really  just take you out of the picture and really that’s what happened at Kansas with the guys that are at the bottom of the barrel now. They had a really bad Kansas and a mediocre Charlotte and now they rely on one race to try to win and get in. It’s just — I’m sure this scenario has been thought through by NASCAR and knowing that someone that has the most wins could get knocked out in the first round much less the second. But, it’s still about consistency and this is the last round you’re going to be able to get by with consistency. You are going to have to be a top five to six car every single week from here on out if you really want to be a championship contender. And, I think that after this cut that’s when you’re really going to see the cream rise to the top. But, we knew this was all possible. No one expected really probably four of the fastest drivers most of the year to be in this position like they are, but it’s just one bad race puts them in that spot.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx One Rate Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued)
Do you agree with the odds an online gambling website posted of 100 to 1that you or Matt Kenseth will get in another fight with Brad Keselowski?
“Way too high. It’s for either of us right? Well, I mean I don’t know. We’ll all run into each other at some point in Martinsville. I mean, it’s just going to be part of it. So, does that count? Oh, it has to be a fight? Probably about right then? We saw from Saturday night those two aren’t fighters.”
Do you want to knock out the guys that are running well now or the guys who won the most races this year?
“We would like to take out some of those fast guys back there. Obviously we would like to race amongst the group we have right now obviously. I feel like on speed we’ve been close to those guys. Jimmie (Johnson) — the 48, the 2 (Brad Keselowski) and the 5 (Kasey Kahne) and the 24 (Jeff Gordon), they’ve all been really fast throughout the year. So, obviously if they get eliminated then you obviously put yourself with a better chance to win come Homestead because think about the top five guys who you would put on the top of the list at Homestead. You would rank those guys right up there. I would like to get them out selfishly.”
